TL;DR
- We (Stable) issue a fiat-backed stablecoin called USDLR.
- Stable is backed by Polychain Capital and Dragonfly Capital.
- Stable can pay Radiant 10% annualized in stablecoins on USDLR TVL held in Radiant.
- Radiant can use these funds to incentivize growth/finance operations.
- USDLR uses the same contracts as USDC
- No rebasing, no wrapping, no allowlists, and no code-changes required.
Hey there!
My name is David, and I’m the co-founder/CEO of Stable, a company that issues a fiat-backed stablecoin called USDLR. We wanted to get a temp check from the Radiant community on the prospect of adding USDLR as a collateral asset or a borrowable stablecoin.
Stable’s core differentiator from other similar stablecoins is our affiliate program, where we pay crypto protocols and companies to incentivize their users to deposit/hold USDLR on their applications.
For a limited time, affiliates can receive 10% annualized on their users’ USDLR deposits, over double our normal rate of 4.5%.
Problem
High interest rate environments create challenging times for the DeFi industry:
- Revenues have declined dramatically: since most DeFi protocols earn revenues through take rates, low crypto activity (trading, lending, etc.) means low revenues.
- User retention is harder: the opportunity cost of holding on-chain assets is high compared to U.S. government bonds yielding 5%. As a result, users are incentivized to move assets off-chain.
At current TVL numbers, there are over $7B in fiat-backed stablecoins stored on Ethereum L1’s and L2’s. At current interest rates, this means that DeFi protocols are driving over $350m in revenue to fiat-backed stablecoin issuers for free.
Solution
As the meme goes: Stable fixes this. The Stable affiliate program was created on the belief that DeFi protocols should be compensated for driving demand to fiat-backed stablecoins.
How it works:
Stable does not share yield with holders. All revenue will only be shared with KYC’d protocols and crypto companies.
Stable pays lending protocols to:
- Allow and incentivize borrowers to deposit USDLR as collateral.
- Create a USDLR market for borrowers to borrow USDLR.
At the end of every month, Stable will calculate the daily average TVL of USDLR held in Radiant’s smart contracts and multiply that by the monthly affiliate reward rate. Stable will then send this amount to an address the protocol chooses.
Example:
If the average TVL of USDLR put up by Radiant’s users as collateral is $10m in the month of January, and the monthly affiliate reward rate is 0.833% (~10% annualized), USDLR will send $83,333 USDLR or USDC to an address controlled by the protocol (~$1m annualized).
Stable’s relationship to affiliates is similar to MakerDAO’s current and prior relationships to Circle, Paxos, and Gemini, or Coinbase’s relationship to Circle.
By sharing the revenue we receive from Treasury bills with DeFi protocols, Stable:
- Offers a new revenue source, which can be used to fuel growth or finance operations.
- Subsidizes users’ opportunity cost, which makes it easier for users to keep assets in your protocol.
Again, Stable does not share yield with holders. All revenue will only be shared with KYC’d protocols.
Comparison
Today, the hype cycle is focused on yield-bearing stablecoins and tokenized treasuries.
Both USDLR and yield-bearing assets solve the problem of subsidizing user opportunity cost. Here are some ways that USDLR differentiates:
| USDLR | Yield-bearing products | |
|---|---|---|
| UX |  Fork of USDC’s contracts |
 Rebasing yield-bearing assets may require wrapped tokens. |
| Permissionlessness | No allowlist |
Some protocols require allowlist to transfer |
| Flexibility around incentives | Protocol chooses how to incentivize users |
All yield passed to users; no flexibility on incentive mechanism. |
Technical Details
Native USDLR is a fork of USDC, and is launched on Ethereum. There are bridged version on other L2s, including Arbitrum.
Users will be able to obtain USDLR from decentralized exchanges such as Curve and Uniswap.
About Us
Stable is backed by Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Robot Ventures and notable angels such as Balaji Srinivasan (ex-Coinbase, a16z), Sid Powell (Founder, Maple Finance), Julian Koh (Founder, Ribbon Finance).
Stable’s team members come from backgrounds spanning tech and finance at institutions such as Flexport, Brex, Lazard, Uber, UPenn and Columbia.
FAQ
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Do you share yield with holders?
- No. USDLR is a fiat-backed stablecoin, not a security, meaning that Stable does not share yield directly with USDLR holders.
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Does my protocol need to buy and hold USDLR in our treasury to earn a revenue share?
- No. The amount of revenue we share is based off of USDLR TVL that your users bring to your platform. The DAO may use a part of its own liquidity to provide liquidity and contribute to the USDLR TVL.
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Doesn’t sharing revenue make you a security?
- No. Revenue sharing agreements exist in other parts of crypto, such as between MakerDAO and fiat-backed stablecoins like USDC, USDP, and GUSD. The revenue share should be considered an affiliate marketing reward for marketing and incentivizing USDLR usage.
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What can I do with the yield?
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Protocols have discretion over how to spend the yield. Some ideas include:
- Rewarding users who borrow using USDLR as collateral
- Reducing borrow fees for borrowers who use USDLR as collateral
- Incentivizing lenders to supply USDLR to the USDLR market
Ultimately, protocols understand their communities much better than we do, which is why we are agnostic to how the yield is used.
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How is USDLR structured?
- USDLR is issued by Peregrine Exploration, LLC 1, which is an MSB registered with FinCEN (#31000246803569). USDLR reserves are kept separate from Stable’s operating company. Reserves are held by BitGo, our crypto/cash custodian, and ZeroCap, our investment manager. Treasury bills are ultimately custodied by clearing exchange member banks like Standard Chartered and JP Morgan.
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What backs USDLR?
- USDLR is fully backed 1-for-1 by US dollars and short-term US Treasury Bills.
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How do I know that USDLR is fully backed?
- Stable will publish third-party attestations weekly at https://withstable.com/transparency. Attestations are provided by NAV Consulting.
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Who can mint and redeem?
- Non-US institutions who have undergone our KYC process are authorized to mint and redeem USDLR directly through Stable’s application.
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Where can retail users buy USDLR?
- USDLR can be found on various decentralized exchanges like Curve.
Links:
Website: https://withstable.com
Docs: https://docs.withstable.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/withstable
